Alternative energy backers go to court in Seabrook Station fight

DOVER — A panel of federal judges is considering an appeal from three environmental and anti-nuclear groups hoping to stop the relicensing of Seabrook Station.

The license — held by plant operator NextEra Energy — will expire March, 15, 2030. NextEra contacted the NRC two years ago seeking to renew the license for the nuclear power plant for another 20 years, through 2050.

As part of its review process, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission received challenges from five citizen groups seeking to intervene in the license renewal.

The NRC initially gave some of those groups the green light to get involved, but NextEra appealed the decision, and the NRC ultimately cut three of the five groups out of the process in March.

Those groups, the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League (SAPL), based in Exeter; the New Hampshire Sierra Club; and Beyond Nuclear, a national “safe energy organization” based in Takoma Park, Md., filed a lawsuit against the NRC earlier this year.

“It’s our concern that there was a political decision made at the commission level to overrule its own board to defend the interests of the operator of Seabrook,” Paul Gunter, of Beyond Nuclear, said Friday.

The groups are asking a federal appeals court to grant them permission to intervene in the relicensing of Seabrook Station once more. A panel of judges at the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston heard oral arguments in the case on Thursday, Nov. 8.

“Seabrook, perhaps the nation’s most controversial nuclear power plant, is now seeking early license renewal 18 years in advance of the end of its current license, despite a host of operational and design issues,” reads an announcement circulated by the coalition this week. “In March, the NRC overruled its own Atomic Safety Licensing Board and denied the groups a public hearing on safer, cleaner and competitive renewable energy alternatives, particularly offshore wind power, as compared to nuclear power generated at Seabrook over future decades.”

The groups contend that alternative energy sources could eventually make the nuclear energy supplied by Seabrook Station unnecessary.

They’re being represented in the appeal process by attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo, Ohio. According to their announcement, Lodge has participated in litigation against other nuclear plants filing for a license renewal on the grounds that renewable energy alternatives could be available in the future.

When it dismissed the groups in March, the NRC indicated alternative energy technology must be viable today “or in the near future” in order for consideration.

“Here, Beyond Nuclear has not provided support for its claim that offshore wind is technically feasible and commercially viable — either today or in the near future — and therefore has not submitted an admissible contention,” the NRC decision reads.

Friends of the Coast and the New England Coalition are the two other citizen groups that are challenging the relicensing of Seabrook Station.

Three months ago, they filed for leave with the NRC to challenge NextEra’s long-term plan to address the effects of concrete degradation at the plant, which was discovered two years ago.

The challenge is centered around an “alkali-silica” chemical reaction affecting concrete in an underground tunnel. The discovery prompted the NRC to delay a safety report connected with the plant’s request for a 20-year license extension until this year.

NRC representatives have said the issue has since been dealt with, and the structural integrity of the concrete continues to meet safety standards.

In a decision announced Thursday, the NRC ruled it will not permit the two groups to raise the contention because the period of time in which they should have filed for consideration has expired.

“The panel has ruled that the NRC staff has been raising and reviewing ASR (alkali-silica reaction) issues since 2010 and therefore the groups could have filed the contention at the appropriate time for doing so, i.e., at the time the NRC accepted the application for formal review and opened the window for hearing requests,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan wrote in an email Thursday. “That window was open from July 21 to Oct. 20, 2010.”